Bargain Bride: The Billionaire’s Forced Wife

SITTING IN FRONT of her newly bought laptop, Chiara is clutching the memory card in her palm. She became too busy for the past few days, solving the problems in the empire and taking care of her husband at the same time.

Both things are not going well. The empire’s stock market price is going down each day. People are still questioning her leadership and they don’t listen to her. On the other hand, her husband didn’t show any signs of improvement. He is still unconscious and the doctor is starting to worry because his vitals are unstable at some times.

“There are too many problems. They are punching me at the same time,” Chiara murmured to herself before taking a deep sigh.

Her eyes landed on the smaller version of their wedding photo that’s sitting on the top of her desk – Ezio’s desk. All of her exhaustion seemed to lifted up by an invisible thing when she saw how bright her husband’s smile is.

Earning the motivation that she needs, Chiara inserted the small memory card in to the adapter before putting it in the card slot of the new laptop.

“I can’t believe I just bought a new laptop for this,” she thought to herself.

Since the incident that included her husband, Chiara became too doubtful of her surroundings. Thus, she thought that someone might hacked in to her old computer and use the information inside the memory card without her knowing it first. Besides, she doesn’t know if the card is safe for her laptop. It might have some malware.

Opening the file manager, Chiara was greeted with thousands of files. But the number of files didn’t shock her, instead, her attention was drifted to the two folders on the first row. One folder has an unfamiliar name of a man, while the one has the name of her husband: Ezio Moris Vitali.

She hurriedly opened the folder that has her husband’s name, and was greeted by different files, documents, photos, and recordings.

“What the hell,” she spoke and cusses in different languages escaped from her mouth as she read what’s inside the files.

It’s almost complete. From the information of his grandparents, the business they offer, the people working for them. Even the latest audit report, both the real and the sabotaged one, is in the folder.Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

Chiara’s information are also inside. It looked like her autobiography. The current happenings in her life, even the meet-up with Elisa is also there. It was a good thing that it indicated that Elisa persuaded her to reveal where Ezio is, which is not really what happened that day.

She exited the folder and went to another one. Ariti Gomez: the name of the folder. It is not familiar to her although she knew some people with the surname like that.

Chiara opened her phone and called Nick. “Hello, Nick! Are you busy?” she asked while scrolling to the endless pit of files.

“Hey, Chichi!” Nick greeted on the other side, police sirens are even heard. “Not really. Just arrived at our station after having a big catch. What’s up?”

Chiara smiled since she was at the right timing. “That’s good. I want you to look up for the information of someone. His name is Ariti Gomez. Just the surface information. And,” she looked at the clock stuck on the wall. “I need it now.”

She heard the sound of clicking keyboards on the other side, a sign that Nick is already working on what she said. After a few moment of silence, he spoke.

“I got what you need, Chichi,” he said and clicked his tongue. “Just a reminder that these information are really the surface, just like the one you can see in Wikipedia.”

“I understand. I just need a gist of who he is,” Chiara answered.

“Oo-kay,” Nick scrolled in his computer. “Ariti Gomez came from Spain. He’s a child of a Baron. He was visiting in Italy for several years because of his fiance. The name? Nothing was mentioned. He was pretty a low-key guy. Unfortunately, he was found dead in a cliff in Milan. Police records said it was suicide.”

The last part made her shiver. She was starting to create various hypothesis on what happened to that Ariti Gomez and why his name is in the folder.

“If you are going to ask me, suicide cases are usually the tricky one,” Nick spoke after explaining the report.

Chiara squinted her eyes in interest and confusion. “What do you mean tricky? In what sense?”

“Well, in my years in case solving, 6 out of 10 suicide cases were really murder. Although police found a suicide note in his body, it’s still sketchy. Plus the fact that his fiance’s name is not mentioned adds to the mystery,” he explained his thoughts. “That’s what I think. The seemingly easy as pie cases are usually the deep one. So make sure to look at all perspectives.”

Someone on the other line, a woman’s voice, called Nick’s name with urgency and worry. “Gotta hang up, Chichi. Text me if you still need anything.”

Before Chiara could thank him, the call was ended. She turned to the laptop again, contemplating whether she will open a file or not.

After giving it a thought, she scrolled down, looking for something that might have tell some clues on who Ariti’s former fiance is and how he died. The speculation that Nick said is echoing in her mind.

She had opened files, went thru different voice recordings, and opened photos that has a picture of a man who she think is Ariti and a familiar woman. That must be his fiance.

At last, her fingers clicked the last part of the folder that contains videos.

The more Chiara watched, the more her body is filled with fear. The more her stomach turns. The more she hates Giovanni.

CHIARA WAS TAKING A SIP in her afternoon tea where Luigi barged into the office. He was holding a news paper and a folder on both hands.

“What’s the matter?” she asked while putting down the cup.

Luigi’s forehead is filled with sweat even though the whole building is air conditioned. He was also huffing as if he ran for miles and hours.

He placed the folder in her desk before bowing. “Signora, this is the financial report for the Hotel di Vitali,” he said, worry and fear is evident in his voice.

Chiara already knew that it was not a good news, but she was still shocked when she saw how big the decrease in profit is.

“What?!” she exclaimed. “How did this happen? Just last week, everything is fine. How did we lose such huge amount?!”

Luigi gave her the newspaper. Her forehead creased while reading the front page of it.

“Downfall of Hotel di Vitali? : Hotel Received Thousands of One Star,” Chiara said to herself while reading the news. The title is already a giveaway, but she continued reading in order to have the full grasp of the situation.

With a hot head, she forcefully folded the paper and threw it on the side. Someone must be behind that, and it doesn’t take a genius to know who it is.

“Luigi,” she called the assistant. “Open the hotel’s website and check those reviews.”

Luigi followed her and opened his phone. After some taps and clicks, he gave it to Chiara for her fo check.

She just casually scrolled over the reviews. After that, she gave the phone back and stood up.

“Let’s go to the technical department. After that, tell the press that I’ll be releasing a statement about these damn reviews.”

FLASHES AND CLICKS of cameras together with the journalists’ voice greeted Chiara as she entered went outside the building. Luigi and Victor was in front of her, protecting her from the crowd, together with the other body guards.

When Chiara positioned herself in the podium, the press was in chaos. Throwing questions after questions. Lights from the flashes of cameras hurt her eyes but she remained standing.

“Silence, please,” she spoke through the microphone which sound scattered in the open area. Everyone became quiet and waited for her to speak. Only the sound of the clicking cameras and passing cars can be heard.

Chiara took a deep breath before speaking. “Today, I received a report that the Hotel di Vitali website was flooded with one star reviews. We all know that Hotel di Vitali is one of the biggest five star hotel in Italy, that’s why this news was a shocked to us,” she started. Her eyes roamed around and she saw familiar faces of those people she doubts.

“Hotel di Vitali is always open for criticism. We are using those reviews to improve our service for our beloved customers. However, upon checking the reviews, we noticed that most of them are copy pasted,” her last sentence gathered a shocked reaction from the press. “There are thousands of reviews so it was difficult to notice. But most of them are repeating and has the same words.”

“Aside from that, the technical team found out that the reviews and the accounts where all created at the same IP address,” the journalists started writing down heavily and bystanders were whispering to each other. “It only means that the reviews came from one source. Thus, we concluded that someone is trying to put a dirt into Hotel di Vitali’s image.”

A journalist raised her hand and shouted. “Who could it be, Mrs. Vitali? Is it a competitor of yours?”

Chiara just gave a little smile. “We were leaning into that, but we are also considering some perspectives. We will cooperate with the authorities to find who is behind this, and also, prove that those reviews are fake,” she answered calmly.

“Those reviews ruined the overall rating in your website. It can move your potential clients away. What will you do to fix this?” another journalist asked.

“Our technical team is already working on it. We will filter those repetitive reviews and remove them from the website. Also, we will strengthen the review policy to make sure that it is really our clients who are giving them.”

From her peripheral vision, she saw someone looking at her with frustrated eyes. Her eyes are on him, but she saw how angry he is that Chiara get away from the mess that he made.

Sigmund, Simone’s uncle, together with Alessandra, turned their back from the crowd of people and left when the people started clapping, admiring how Ezio’s wife handled the chaos smoothly.